It's about that time... We're just about three weeks away from the release of a popular film, based on a novel (in this case a series of novels), that has some anti-church content in it.  So it seems strangely appropriate that, despite the fact that the books have existed for 11 years and New Line announced that they were making the movies more than four years ago, now, on the cusp of the release, church people all across the country are up in arms, on an e-mail campaign to warn good church going folk away from seeing this movie, or spending their money to support "the evil forces of darkness" threatening our values.

 All sarcasm aside (which is a step for me), the truth is, the book does have some content that should be examined - and by examined, I mean read the darn thing.  I'm honestly so sick and tired of churchgoers hopping on the bandwagon and proclaiming that Harry Potter or The DaVinci Code or Buffy the Vampire Slayer is down and dirty, evil and wrong - without ever taking the time to find out for themselves what the truth is.  I don't even care that they may have some disturbing content when I read these chain e-mails and blog postings by people who haven't even taken the time to actually see for themselves what the fuss is all about.

I mean, it's not like the people sending these are spiritual children.  Allegedly, these are mature, responsible, adult Christians - many raised in the church, accepted Christ and members of churches, Bible studies and small groups.  People who have gone through "Faith 101," "Discipleship 102," "Spiritual Growth 103," and "Networking/Spiritual Gifts 201"  Yet they're afraid to pick up a children's book and read it for fear they'll lose their faith?  If you're eating spiritual meat, then the cotton candy-style, baseless lies of The DaVinci Code are patently obvious - as are the strong spiritual truths present in the Harry Potter series - I mean, when was the last time someone quoted Bible passages in a book that 10 year olds read - citied or not?

So what's up with Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, and The Golden Compass, releasing in theatres on November 16th?  I have to be honest, I've never read the novels myself.  Not out of any concern for their content, but mostly because I just haven't gotten around to them yet.  There are a lot of books out there and while I read prolificly, there's just not enough time to get to everything I want to check out.  So, I have posted here a friend's opinion, who has read the books, in response to one of the many e-mails floating around out there.  I think you'll find it insightful and helpful - but still not a substitute for READING THE BOOKS YOURSELF.  With no further ado...

  A Different Perspective on The Golden Compass

by Jan Pursel

My husband and I read The Golden Compass trilogy a few years ago by listening to audio books from the library. While I do not deny that there is a struggle against a very corrupted Christian, hierarchical (possibly Catholic?) church in the book, I did not find the story to be nearly as terrible as some places on the internet have made it to be. I was looking for the spiritual parallels as was my husband, who is much better at picking up on imagery than I am. We found it to be your typical struggle of good versus evil. Are they trying to kill God? Yes, one small group of people seems to be out overcome God just as Lucifer has tried to do according to the Bible. This group also tries to drag a couple of 'Adam and Eve' type characters into it in the process (similar to the book of Genesis, perhaps?).  But we still found the main focus of the books was the "good" characters attempting to defeat the "evil" characters.

 

At the end of the third book, there was all kinds of opportunity for the author to make a statement about life after death and we felt he completely blew the ending when he could have made redemptive analogies and so on. Atheist or not, he gave a lousy ending to the story, and I've seen atheistic writers still give a good ending to a spiritual story before, even if they didn't believe all of it themselves.

 

One article I read indicated there is castration and female circumcision in these books. I do not remember anything about castration and female circumcision in these books, and I think that would be pretty hard to miss.

 

So, take the statements on the internet for what they are, but I recommend that, like with Harry Potter, you read the book or trilogy and decide for yourself. If you get it from the library, you don't have to pay for it and support the author's cause. Your taxes already do that. If you don't have time to read, many libraries also provide audio versions of books so you can listen and multi-task.

 

I can't make a statement about Pullman's faith (or rather, lack thereof), but like with anything else, this might be a teachable moment for you and your children, an opportunity to talk about your faith in relation to society, good versus evil and so on. As with anything, you should, of course, keep in mind what is age appropriate, but I think if you investigate this or any other book yourself, you can determine whether or not that item is age appropriate for your children. One of my points here is that while it is our job to protect our children, it is also our job to teach them how to be 'in the world but not of it.' If we don't teach them to think and understand their world from a biblical viewpoint while they are under our care, they may not know how to do it once they are on their own.

 

I am also concerned about the Christian bandwagon effect. Negative publicity for Pullman's movie is just as good as positive publicity under the theory that any publicity is good publicity. But movies that don't make a big bang on the silver screen fade quickly into oblivion. What we don't seem to realize is that the more hype a movie gets about being controversial, the more people will go to see it, even Christians. We may think we have this great boycott going, but I honestly think that many times it backfires.

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts. This is not meant to be judgmental of anyone in particular or create a stir. I just thought I'd provide another perspective from someone who has read the books.